Simple Maple Shortbread Cookies

Maple shortbread cookies are an exquisite mouth journey. If you’ve never had a good shortbread cookie, let me just tell you. You are missing out. They practically melt in your mouth and are a rich buttery, light sweet cookie. They are the type of cookie you can eat like 12 and then you’re like.. what just happened?

I thought about putting a maple glaze on these, but the taste with just maple extract in the cookie dough was perfect. Not overwhelming but definitely there. It’s balanced well with the butter. Which, because butter is such a forward taste in these, buy the best butter you can. High butterfat, and you want salted butter. You could use unsalted and add butter but I tested these with salted and it was perfect.

The one thing I will warn you about with these maple shortbread cookies is you will eat too many. You eat one and think wow! Then you say to yourself they are small, one or two will be fine. Then, before you know it the whole batch is gone. I’d recommend having a plan to give some to friends.. or just eat them all. I didn’t hate that choice.

Now if you love shortbread cookies, but are thinking I really just am not in the mood for maple? I’d recommend my Thai Tea Shortbread Cookies which are so good, but especially so if you love Thai Tea. But also my Ted Lasso Shortbread Bars are a pretty traditional OG shortbread.

Maple Shortbread Cookies Key Ingredients

• Butter – If I could emphasize how important butter is in these maple shortbread cookies, I’d probably just make it the only key ingredient. Now, can you use any butter and they will turn out fine? Yes. BUT, if you want the best tasting most flavorful you want the GOOD butter. European, high butterfat. I also use salted in lieu of adding salt. Trust me, I made them with a store brand butter and a more expensive one.. and I could tell the difference.
• Maple Extract – Some maple recipes use maple syrup, but maple syrup has sugar in it. I didn’t want these to be overwhelmingly sweet. I wanted them buttery and maple forward first. So extract will give you that strong maple flavor with just a little extract.
• Powdered Sugar – I like to use powdered sugar with these over granulated as it helps with that melt in your mouth texture.

Maple Shortbread Cookies

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Prep: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Bake: 13 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 225 g Salted butter 1 cup, European/high butterfat, softened
• 25 g Dark brown sugar 2 tbsp
• 60 g Powdered sugar ½ cup, sifted
• 2 tsp Maple extract
• 240 g AP Flour 2 cups

Instructions

• In a large bowl and hand mixer or the bowl of your stand mixer with paddle attached, cream together butter, powdered sugar, brown sugar.
• Add in maple extract and incorporate into the dough.
• Add flour into dough, either by hand with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula or by mixer on low. Stop when the dough starts to come together and bring together by hand into a ball.
• Roll dough into a log shape, or form into a rectangular shape. Make it longer and thinner if you would like smaller cookies or shorter and thicker if you would like bigger cookies. You will slice this dough to make the cookies.
• Wrap dough in plastic cling wrap tightly, and put in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Bring your dough out of the refrigerator and slice dough into pieces about ¼ inch thick. Place onto lined baking sheet with at least 1 inch separating each cookie.
• Bake the cookies on the center rack for about 13 minutes. The cookies will be ready when the edges are just starting to lightly turn golden.
• Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes as they will still be a little soft (but will firm up) before moving to a wire rack to cool.